GIOVANNI CALDERAN

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Latest news

Tug undergoing trials years after collision

The "Solan" jointly with the "Bonxie" has finally come back to the isles to undergo sea trials in Sullom Voe harbour. The tugs which cost the council £7 million three years ago, were undergoing sea trials with a tanker in the harbour on May 16, 2014. In summer 2013 the tugs had new fins fitted to their hulls to give them greater stability after they were pulled out of service when the "Solan" collided with the tanker "Loch Rannoch" in Dec 2011. Crews refused to board the tugs after the incident. Since then work has had to be carried out modifying the complex operating consoles, delaying their reintroduction into the port until May 2014. The SIC has other concerns about the Spanish-built vessels, including the high fuel cost of running tugs with such big engines. The council was now looking at selling the tugs and changing the port back to a four tug operation, using smaller vessels. The SIC harbour board has not finally decided to sell them yet, but decided to go back to the oil industry to discuss whether they were willing to let them have a four tug operation.

Unpopular tugs Solan & Bonxie should be back this summer

TWO new £7 million harbour tugs that were taken out of service after one of them collided with an oil tanker in Shetland should be back in service later this summer. Crews at the council-run oil port of Sullom Voe refused to work on the tugs Solan and Bonxie after a collision with the shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch in December 2011, just nine months after they were delivered from a Spanish shipyard. On 22 December the Solan still had a rope attached to the 76,000 tonne tanker when it suddenly lost all power and control. The tanker, which was travelling at five knots, struck the tug on the stern. No one was injured, but crews said the incident could easily have proved fatal and demanded the tugs be immediately taken out of service. A council-appointed incident panel has taken more than a year to investigate the collision, having been held up after the information from the tug’s black box, or voyage data recorder, proved hard to find. On Tuesday Shetland Islands Council’s harbour board was told the collision had been caused by an underlying steering problem, which meant that the tugs handled completely differently to the rest of the council’s fleet.

Tug withdrawn from service after collision

The tanker "Loch Rannoch" collided with the "Solan" in the Sullom Voe near the oil terminal, Shetland Islands on Dec 21, 2011. The £7 million council tug was leading the empty Schiehallion oilfield shuttle tanker out past Jetty 4 and was preparing to slip her rope when without warning she lost controls and propulsion. She was struck by the tanker doing about five knots and and bounced down the length of the tanker’s hull with the rope still attached. The tug was able to regain control again when the systems restarted. The "Loch Rannoch" was also able to slow down rapidly. The "Solan" had little damage as the rubber fenders of the vessel took much of the impact. The four crew on board the tug were unharmed. The cause of the power loss was being investigated. The "Solan" has been withdrawn from service at Sullom Voe as the cause of the failure remained a mystery. If the failure had happened a few minutes earlier when the "Solan" was a bit further ahead of the tanker the collision would have had much greater momentum Also the sister tug "Bonxie" was immediately suspended from service and remain tied up at the pier at Sella Ness. The council had already decided to have modifications carried out when they go into drydock due to a string of problems with reliability and lack of control since their arrival nearly a year ago.